Internal keyboard and trackpad not working

I am currently using a Macbook Pro 13”retina 2015.

I usually use my Mac in bootcamp for work purposes (Windows). I connect my MacBook to an external HDMI monitor and use a USB mouse & keyboard.

It worked fine, until after awhile, I turned on my Mac to then use the built-in keyboard and trackpad both were not working. The only key working was the power key. I could not enter recovery mode or use any start up command keys since the keyboard was unresponsive. It only worked with my USB (Logitech) external keyboard and mouse.

The trackpad was not detected in system preferences. The weird thing is it still force shutdown when I enter combination: shift+control+option+power button (so the keyboard is kinda working). In some cases, when trying to log on, a bluetooth device search tab appears.

I went to the Apple Store to get it serviced. The technician reinstalled my OS and formatted the drive. The built-in keyboard and mouse worked! And after using my external keyboard and mouse, everything stopped working again. He did not really know the cause of this problem.

I'm pretty sure this isn't a hardware issue as stated above, the shift+control+option+power button still works. I think there may be some error or setting problems.

i had the exact same thing happen with my trackpad while i was in the kona mac store in kona hawaii . i believe it is set off by their bluetooth, the second time they took it i

n for 68 dollars and wanted to chaege me a

nother 580 dollars to fix, i truly believe it is bogus, iam runnung right now with these usb external pieces, ibeg everyone for the correct answer, tried every way i have read so far, i believe the only way now must be to restart from blank factory original settings, thr only thing i have not tried yet,very dissapointed in the store and their lack of knowledge, my make model and year are exactly yours, i believe it is triggered by outside software source

18 Cevap

I know this is an old thread, but the above answer is incomplete. For posterity's sake:

The symptoms OP described are consistent with a faulty trackpad or trackpad cable. The 2015 model is engineered differently than previous ones. The trackpad is now a necessary part of the chain for the system to interpret keyboard input. Thus this model has an issue with the trackpad and keyboard going out together - unlike in the past where a failing trackpad or TP cable would affect the trackpad only.

I work in an Apple repair shop and for some reason have been seeing this issue a lot lately. As in the OP's case, I've seen that power button still works, and the SMC can still be reset while the machine is off. Possibly because the system is ignoring localization / character mapping information now stored in the trackpad, unlike when the machine is on.

Just to be clear - a reliable fix is to replace the trackpad cable. Sometimes, a PRAM reset or trackpad cable reset will temporarily fix the issue. But if you want to be sure it’s solved, a trackpad cable replacement is the way to go!

FWIW - it’s often been the case that machines needing a cable replacement are dusty and have lots of particulate inside. My current theory is the trackpad cable being exposed, rather than under the battery in previous models, leads to these failures at a much higher rate than before.

I do think you are on the right track here Colin. I will tell you this though, I have a machine in my shop experiencing all the same problems and I was able to get one other command to function, Single-User mode. Once in that mode I was able to do two things:

1. Verify that the keyboard itself was fully functional and all keys were typing.

2. Run /sbin/fsck -fy, which did resolve all the issues afterwards. Currently I have not figured out why but I suspect the answer lies somewhere in that communication you are discussing.

Note that the issue OP described is specific to the 2015 MBP, so resolutions from older threads likely won't work.

They changed two things in the 2015 model over previous years -

1. New trackpad - Force Touch model. As I said above, it appears to be a necessary part of the keyboard input chain now.

2. Trackpad cable ran along the top of the battery, rather than below it as in previous years, exposing it to any debris, crumbs etc that might be inside the machine. This is a complete guess, but as I posted below, my mom's 2015 MBP had this issue, and I did notice a decent size "ding" in her trackpad cable when replacing it.

I have the problem with Trackpad and Keyboard not working on a customer's a1502.. Before I go replacing any ribbon cable(s) for a Trackpad or otherwise, can ANYONE answer this..?

Why do both Keyboard and Trackpad work flawlessly outside of Sierra.? Pick ANY Linux distribution - I have 5-7 variants - and boot up to find KB and Trackpad ALWAYS working, ALL the time, without stopping or failing to work..

Fresh reload of Sierra, same thing. A couple of software updates and they worked, but stopped working again.. Boot to Linux, zero problems... Thx

Well this adds an interesting element to the mix. What did you end up doing?

I wish one of our veterans like @danj or @mayer would share their perspective on this one!

For what it's worth, my mom had this exact issue on her 2015 13" MBP a couple months back when I was visiting. Of course, resetting the PRAM brought back functionality, and it continued working fine while I was there. To be safe we replaced her trackpad cable ($60 off PowerBookMedic). 2 months later, the issue hasn't shown up again. I'll post an update here if that changes. While I was replacing it, I noticed some crumbs had gotten inside, and there was a crumb sized dent in her old trackpad cable.

@wisebeardy - Colin, this issue is tricky as there are many causes! Just like someone complaining about their foot hurting the cause could be someone dropped a brick on it, they kicked something hard, renched the foot running or have gout! Which ‘IS’ the right answer they all are!

Same issue here... a swollen battery, a worn cable, something spilled into the trackpad (spray cleaner) or keyboard being the physical things. The keyboard driver is out of date (failed to update in OS update) or in Ruben’s case Linux or MS Windows messes up the driver within BootCamp (or if running natively directly corrrupts it) In some cases a Trojan has tried to infiltrate the system!

Oops... Kinda late back to the conversation. 1) Still unanswered "Ultimate" question remains not answered - "Why does this issue never appear when booted into ANY Linux Distro?".. I actually thought for a moment, maybe booting Linux and then restarting into Mac OS X was a permanent fix (as it seemed to have been a winning formula w/ several warm and cold reboots w/ KB/TP working great..). Okay, so I'm excited to put this on the counter for my customer (ring up - take payment, etc..). Customer arrives and KB/TP NOT working again..!! (she's leaving the state by-the-way, in about 2-3 hrs). Within 1 hour, my customer returned after I DID find a winning formula, which turned out to be the ONLY thing I could possibly try within a 1/2 hr. Posted here previously - "elevate/separate ribbon cable stuck to battery going to TP" with ANYTHING (yes - E Tape even)" That fixed it, customer several months later says still working. I hope this can help "some" cases, but I don't expect it to help "all" cases. Thx again..

Hi, I'm not entirely sure if this will work but please give it a go because I'm posting this right after I managed to find the fix (hopefully a permanent one):

1. Shut down your MBP

2. Connect an external keyboard to your MBP

3. Reboot your MBP while holding the Shift key to go into Safe Boot

4. For me, my trackpad and keyboard instantly revived, and I just shut the MBP down and switched it on normally.

It took me ages to try this because all I could find were suggestions to reset SMC and PRAM. I even did a clean wipe of my MBP, nothing worked. I'm just posting this in hopes that it helps, but I'm praying hard that this is a permanent fix for me as well.

I am currently battling this problem. On four occasions I have fixed it only for it it occur a short while later. My problem seems to be associated with the ribbon clamp at the front end of the trackpad cable (under the front edge of the MB. When I re-seat it I get full functionality back (on one occasion only the keyboard came back however). The problem first occurred after carrying the MB in a bag against my back on a brisk walk, so it got a bit of a shake and some bending load. Since then it has become more and more fragile - I daren't move it now! The ribbon has a couple of stress relieving kinks in it next to this end which would normally reduce a pull on the connector if the battery where to move (or swell), but these create the unfortunate consequence that if pressed by the cover if it is slightly dented, by my back for example, will produce quite a large force to dislocate the ribbon end. I have inserted a little pad under the ribbon end this time to try to maintain some upward pressure on it to resist better any more compressions. Will it work for long? Lets see.. (I would add that there is no difference in appearance between a working clamped ribbon and a non working one, it is something very subtle and sensitive that is going wrong here)

I would recommend you replace the cable. You may also want to run CoconutBattery to make sure you battery is in good shape. I often see swelled batteries are pressing the cable against the bottom cover.

I also place to the sides (making a bit of a channel) where the cable runs some dense foam tape to help protect the cable.

Many thanks for the advice Dan, I see what you are thinking. My battery looked fine however, but I will try coconut. Replacing the cable could also improve the retention of the connector strip under the clamp, with a nice fresh surface for this to grip to.

I reset the shape of the folds/kinks in the ribbon to ensure they would not touch the bottom case and had two days of reliable use, including carrying the MB about, then after overnight recharging (gets quite warm) the ribbon disconnected itself, without any external influence, just sitting there on the side board. Couldn't get it to work after that, at all.

Now I have a replacement ribbon in, as suggested by Dan, and it's working again. don't know if it will survive a recharge yet.

Fitting the ribbon is tricky, it does not come with the little sticky pads at the clamp end that aid the retention, I am re-using the old ones. Putting the kinks into the ribbon is also very difficult and, I suspect, critical.

This is also one of the first things I try depending on what I'm told happened.

A common cause on the trackpad is spray cleaners! It seeps into the innner layers or drips onto the logic board underneath making a mess! People spray the surface Vs the cloth to then wipe the surface. This makes the difference of not killing the trackpad. The keyboard can also encounter spray cleaner abuse, luckily it recovers!

After all type of tests at the apple repair shop, days and days without my computer, all types of diagnostics, including blaming me for what I have active at login, they finally accept to change the trackpad cable. It has been a week, and it is working fine.

I'm having the same issue with the same machine. The keyboard and trackpad just slowly stopped working. Sometimes they would work after a while but then stop completely randomly while typing and eventually stopped completely. The keyboard's background light is still working.

I ordered and put in a new trackpad cable, and it worked for a while but the system now shows me there's no trackpad or keyboard installed. SMC reset works with the internal keyboard, PRAM does not. However, when the machine is running, I can also perform this quick shutdown shortcut using Shift+Option+Command+Power Button. Any suggestions what I could try?

I'm having the same problem with the trackpad and keyboard not working. I have already replaced the trackpad cable, to no avail... I can also reset the SMC when the machine is off, but I can also do this quick shutdown shortcut using shift-option-command and the power button, so these keys seem to work, even if the machine is running. I don't know if they are simply differently wired, but if those keys are working I feel like the rest of the keyboard should be working as well. However, it doesn't.

I had exactly the same problem and resetting with chords did not help. I noticed that it happened to me when the weather is cold ( I do not turn on the heater in CA until the morning). When I warmed the laptop, the trackpack and keyboard worked as normal again. Perhaps some models have temperature-dependend metal expansion design problems.

I run a Helpdesk at a small University and we have seen three of these in the last month. The only fix I have found that worked consistently is unplugging the battery (old school smc reset). The regular SMC reset hasn't done it, nor has reseating the cable. Sadly, the problem usually comes back.

One of the customers said her friend had taken her Mac into an Apple store before Christmas for the same problem and they told her that they had seen a lot of these and they knew what the fix was. Five minutes later they gave her the computer, but did not tell her what they had done.

I look forward to trying the solutions above. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

I have exactly the same problem. The keyboard of my MacBook Pro 13'' Retina Early 2015 stopped working, only works on/off button and it is possible to do a hard shutdown with combination shift-ctrl-opt-on/off, but nothing more. I have changed the trackpad cable and it doesn't work. Also changed the keyboard, and again it doesn't work. Apple only offers me change the logic board (700€) because the product is out of warranty. I have seen lots of forums that talk about absolutely the same problem. Obviously the problem is a factory problem and Apple has to assume responsibilities. Apple said to me that they have not enought reports about this problem. All the people with this keyboard failure maybe could send a mail to Apple engineers (acsupportcase@apple.com) and demonstrate massive problems with MacBook's Pro Keyboards.

So I had this exact thing happen on my 2015 retina 13 inch MBP. Last time, I had to check the battery that swelled and didn't charge ... I swapped battery out myself and voila ... mac booted with keyboard and mouse support. About 2 months later with moderate use, trackpad and keyboard stopped working again.

Took the back off, saw the battery was okay and cable was okay. After taking back off, mouse and keyboard started working again.

Try this first, may buy you a few months before you have to do it again.

Update - 1 screwing back plate back on renders trackpad and keyboard useless again. Took back off and worked again. It may be a cord insulation problem that a revision of the cable itself solves. Will try to insulate cable from shell but so far workin cover unscrewed but still affixed to bottom.

Update - 2 Not an insulation but pressure problem. Too much pressure is being put on that ribbon cable really sucks.

Sounds like the back plate is pressing on the stiff section of the ribbon, where the kinks are, just next to the ribbon clamp. This ribbon clamp is very sensitive and does not tolerate any movement. The design is poor in that there is no stress relief for the ribbon clamp when the kinks are subject to pressure. The purpose of the kinks is to steer the ribbon from the clamp, up and over the battery, but must not go so high as the be in contact within the back plate. It is critical that you get the dimension right when you make the kinks when installing a new ribbon (I imagine the pros would have a template for this). The other problem here is once you make these kinks it is very difficult to adjust them again. A possibility here may be to add some buffers, foam tape, either side of the cable at that end, on the battery, to keep the back plate from making contact with the kinks. If not, try another new cable but do a better job of the kinks this time.

Hi, it can be a software issue, but as by the end of June Apple Inc. has acknowledged that there can be situations where some "glue" inside the computer causes this issue. A certified Apple repair shop identified the issue and replaced the keyboard and screen on my 2015 MacBookPro, and now everything is working. Nice that Apple has covered this repair.

This is a very common problem on the 2015 model of the Macbook pro. It normally occurs when the cable that connects the trackpad to the logic board / mother board starts deteriorating and becomes faulty. This faulty cable will affect the keyboard as well even though they are not connected. In some cases, the keyboard and trackpad work on the login screen after powering up but fail to work after logging in. To resolve this, you will need to replace the cable. It goes for about £10 and is a ten minute job.

It is a software issue. You can fix it by cleaning your desktop f any files, because some how, there are files that can corrupt the start up process, thats why you have to start it up over and over again until the trackpad is recognized again. Or, you can upgrade to High Sierra ant the upgrade will solve the issue.